Lake Whitney Medical Center, the sole remaining hospital operated by embattled chain owner Dr. Tariq Mahmood, has been mired in turmoil in recent days as employee paychecks bounced, the top administrator left, and the chief of the medical staff stepped down.

At the same time, a team from the Texas Department of State Health Services has been on site investigating quality of care.

The events come on the heels of Gov. Rick Perry’s order just over a week ago to conduct a comprehensive investigation of Mahmood’s operations following my July 14 report chronicling dangers to patients and potential fraud in his hospital system over the last four years. Mahmood is under indictment for insurance billing fraud. He has pleaded not guilty.

Details about what’s happened inside the hospital 30 miles north of Waco are still hazy. The interim manager has not returned my phone call from earlier today, and Whitney’s mayor has not responded to my messages.

State health officials are withholding comment as their investigation continues.

In a highly unusual move, the Milam County Sheriff Department has wrested control of Central Texas Hospital in Cameron, heeding a court order that aims to prevent the facility’s owner from altering, hiding or destroying medical records and other property.

A temporary injunction was sought by the hospital’s building landlord, which cited “the recent conduct of defendant Dr. Tariq Mahmood in other situations,” and the need to avoid “real potential consequences” to the community.

I reported yesterday that the sheriff had shuttered the hospital’s main operations, leaving only the ER open. It is the latest action in a rapid government crackdown during the last week on Mahmood whose hospitals have endangered patients during the last four years and engaged in potential billing fraud — a record I chronicled in a July 14 investigative report.

At the time of yesterday’s report, the events leading to Sheriff David Greene’s move in the town near Waco were unclear. His office is refusing to comment. But court records I obtained today show that the landlord petitioned for a temporary restraining order late Friday. That was the same day Gov. Rick Perry’s office disclosed he had initiated a “deep and comprehensive” investigation of Mahmood’s chain as well as regulatory failures.

Update at 1:13 p.m. Federal regulators just confirmed that Renaissance Hospital Terrell has been shut down in the wake of recent patient-care breakdowns that included two deaths.

“There are no staff or patients in the facility, and it is not providing any care at all,” according to a statement CMS sent me moments ago.

Agency officials are now trying to notify Kaufman County residents that they have several care options within 25 miles of Terrell that I’ve listed at the bottom of this post in bold.

Original item at 12:17 p.m. In a rare action, federal and state health regulators are moving to shut down Renaissance Hospital Terrell for recklessly endangering patients, including nursing failures they say led to two deaths.

As of midnight, the lone hospital serving Terrell, southeast of Dallas in Kaufman County, became only the ninth hospital in the U.S. during the last three years to see its funding cut off by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, records show. And it’s only the fifth time since 2007 the Texas Department of State Health Services has moved to revoke a hospital’s license, that agency says.

We’re still trying to piece together the facts. But a January inspection report I obtained from CMS shows the 102-bed hospital – owned by RH Terrell Management LLC, as listed in state records – has violated 15 safety regulations in recent months, placing patients in the most serious threat category, “immediate jeopardy.’’

Now a spokeswoman for Jeff Vitt’s Star Medical Group says he did nothing wrong and blames the dispute on a communication problem — failure to clarify the distinction between Star Medical and another Vitt company called Flu Shots of America.

Texas health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said Friday that Star claimed to be a private medical practice, making it eligible for an early shipment of vaccine. The state’s theory has been that such practices are the best way to reach the highest-risk patients first.

But Vitt’s business turned out to be what the state calls a mass vaccinator, and it was selling shots to anyone willing to pay $20.

I reported last month that after getting a congressional skewering, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a clumsily named arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was planning another look at possible health effects of Midlothian’s industrial air pollution.

The ATSDR says it began that effort on Monday. Researchers from the University of North Texas will be calling a random sample of Midlothian residents. From those, the agency is looking for 100 people to agree to longer interviews next week.

The goal is to get the public’s suggestions in advance on how the federal agency and the Texas state health department should conduct the new air pollution review. That in itself is a shift from past practice. Another change: ATSDR officials at first said the health of local animals wasn’t relevant to looking at local pollution. This time, animals will play a role.